Having just met with our Departmental colleagues in the Attorney-General’s Department and the Department of Social Services I wanted to acknowledge and thank FRSA members for engaging so proactively with AIFS in the range of survey and advisory groups they conducted at the end of last year. As you know, AIFS has been contracted by DSS to assist in the review of CfC FP, CaPs and FMHSS and by AGD to support FRSP Review lead, Mr Andrew Metcalfe AO. Both Departments reported that they were pleased with the response rates received – a message that has also been fed back to us from AIFS. All your efforts, which I appreciate were significant given the timing, go towards building the evidence base required for both these processes.
That said, these Reviews are still live and there are ongoing ways in which service providers can be and will be called upon to be involved. I have no doubt your level of engagement will remain high.
As an event that highlights the outstanding work in our sector, I am delighted to be able to release today the concurrent session program for the FRSA National Conference 2024 – what a line up! Once again, the standard of abstracts received was extremely high and we can’t wait to bring them to you as part of the Conference program in Melbourne this year. For those who missed out – thank you for submitting an abstract. It really is a highly contested market so I do encourage you to look forward to the opportunity to get involved in the process in 2025. Registrations are open and tracking extremely well with the Early Bird rate on offer until Monday, 4 March 2024.
To coincide with the release of the concurrent session part of the program – we will be awarding three (3) delegates free registration. To be eligible – you must have registered (and paid) by Friday, 8 March 2024. Winners will be randomly drawn from the list of registrants with the prize provided in the form of a refund.
I also wanted to thank the ‘network grapevine’ for assistance in recruiting a new Communities of Practice Project Officer. We are very fortunate to be welcoming Lisa Curtis to our team here at FRSA to fill this important role. Until recently, she has been working in the CfC FP program in Katherine with The Smith Family and we think her practice based experience and background in education and training will definitely shine through!
